I live in Emanuel. I love the variety here, some of which must be preserved in diverse educational institutions. Variety has been instrumental in the survival of the Jewish people, both nationally and individually.

Don’t give so much power to the media by believing their misinformation. Two years ago, I approached a so-called journalist that was here with two cameramen – she said to me that it must be an ethnic division because the chasidi school is in the same building. (Does that make any sense? What is wrong with two schools in one building? It saves on resources! The top floor had housed the high school until they got a new building a few years ago, so why not use the empty rooms for the chasidi school?) I said, “but the Chabad school began inside this buidling until they got their own building.” She blushed, blinked rapidly, eyes darted back and forth, said, “I have work to do” and walked off quickly. She had already drawn her conclusions, no need for the facts.

Next time you hear a news story that moves you, please contact people who live locally to get a sense of what is happening.

Because of its small size, Emanuel has been a nice place for people to get to know members of different kinds of communities more easily than in a large city perhaps. That makes this horrendous media fabrication all that more ironic – and painful. Those of you who have written above who have believed the media and are yearning for Moshiach – have you not considered that lies about Jewish people may also be postponing Moshiach’s arrival?

Really once you had achieved your stated goal of getting her to leave your children alone you had no reason to follow her, since it was unlikely that further interaction would leave her feeling more positively about you.

After I sent this off I realized the ultimate irony here and one worth mentioning. Are you aware that this year another school opened in Emanuel? It is called “Beis Rachel and Leah”. It opened under the auspices of the boy’s Sephardic school. Why has that attracted no media attention?

My description of what happened between myself and that hostile reporter above was just to tell you what it is like to live under a cloud of media provocation. I still struggle with whether I did the right thing at all in confronting her, and have personally decided not to speak to hostile reporters again, the toll it took on me was staggering. I am not telling others what to do, just that, close up, I have seen media provocation, and I hope never to confront it again.

The three boys schools were then and continue to be Chabad, Chassidic, and Sephardic. “Chassidic” does not mean “Ashkenazic”. Members of both communities marry each other, so these terms really refer to minhagim (traditions) and not ethnic group. This point cannot be emphasized enough. It is nearly impossible to point to a family and declare, “they are Ashkenazim” or “Sephardim” if you are speaking in ethnic terms. We are already blended. Though some families are still obviously of beautiful Yemenite origin – and their girls are attending the Beis Yacov Chasidi.

The demographics here changed. Chassidim were moving out, and the flavor the original Beis Yacov was becoming more modern. The formation of the Beis Yacov Chasidi was an effort by members of the original Chassidic population here to re-create the kind of Beis Yacov that they had a decade ago. It was a stricter school – in terms of dress, exposure to media, even to some aspects of Haredi culture that they feel is not for them as in Haredi “rock music”, choice of careers, etc – and certainly NOT of an “Ashkenazic” school! This was after a couple of years of outreach programs meant to encourage people to move the original Beis Yacov back towards its original narrower interpretation of the Israeli Haredi lifestyle. This outreach did not succeed, to the Chassidim formed their own school – in their minds, returning to the original school’s former style.

Hostile reporters are harassing children here. The Chassidic children, (Ashkenazi Sephardic, blended) feel intimidated. They are afraid to walk to and from school. The following happened to me on Monday January 25. I approached a hostile reporter:

Me: You come here to lie about us. How would you like it if someone filmed your children?
Reporter: I would be very happy go ahead and do it.
Me: We don’t do that because we are not cruel. You lie about us. What is wrong in your life that you want to provoke Haredim? (She started walking to her car) Is there a problem in your life that causes you to provoke Haredim?
Reporter: You need pills. Can someone calm her down? You are a crazy woman.
Me: Go away. We don’t want you here, we stand against you, men and women, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, we stand against you united. Go away. Stop lying about us.
(Getting into her car, she opened the door abruptly and it bumped my stomach)
Me: Do not hit me with your car door! (Incredibly, she opened the car door threateningly to hit me again but I jumped away.
Reporter: “You need pills go take pills.” She contorted her face and stuck out her tongue, shaking her head back and forth, then drove away.

When will people stop believing media lies? When will they question media provocation? Reporters will mentally and physically attack people and you believe what they say?

zionflag, you obviously haven’t visited Emanuel in a while. It has 3 schools for boys, 3 (now 2) schools for girls, and a seminar, 18 synagogues and no free apartments. In fact its been the population growth that triggered the desire for a new school.

The facts are that about half of the girls in the “ashkenazi” school are ethnically sefardis. The difference is minhag, in particular standards concerning tznius (length and tightness of dress), no makeup, no MP3s, etc.

The parents who objected to the current standards of the city Beis Yakov either bussed their girls to Bnei Brak or tried to start another school.

The media conveniently forgets that the local Chabad girls school started as independent school inside of the Beis Yaakov building in exactly the same way about ten years ago. No one cried “racism” then…

However, such a discrimitation occurs in the USA, where some sephardic children from yemenate and persian background, where children following Sephardic halacha are asked if they are Jewish, and where sephardic families are dennied financial aida, or just rejected all together.

I have seen those cases, in Florida,

It is a real shame to behave like that and for the askenazim to reject such a rich culture , but perhaps they don’t know any better.

I’m sorry for the hilul the school and those families are doing but I’m glad they are closing the school, the same should happen everywhere else.
If such a situation takes place.